Kinder Eggs and Opiates: Inquest begins into death of Windsor Jail inmate

The cell block was buzzing with chatter about a “weekender” – an inmate who only serves time on the weekend – smuggling tobacco and pills into Windsor Jail.

The next day, thanks to a toxic mix of sedatives and narcotic painkillers, Kendra Blackbird was dead.

“We’re all – almost 90 percent of the people there are addicts,” said former inmate Laurie Champeau, 42, who unwittingly sat for hours in a cell next to Blackbird as she slowly died from the drugs she snorted.

A coroner’s inquest began Monday into the death of Blackbird, 34, a mother of three who died Oct. 1, 2012, after she was found unresponsive in her cell. The day of testimony focused heavily on drug smuggling and abuse at the former Windsor Jail, where Blackbird was awaiting sentencing for stabbing someone on a bus.

Pathologist Dr. Pat Allevato testified Blackbird died from a “synergistic drug toxicity” complicated by acute pneumonia, which was also likely caused by drug abuse.

He said Blackbird, who had a history of drug abuse, had enough of the pain-killing narcotic Oxycodone in her system that it alone could have been enough to kill someone. But he said she also had several sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs in her bloodstream. The array of drugs Blackbird took reacted together to multiply their effects on her body.

“The havoc they create is much more than any of them individually,” said Allevato.

Testimony from several witnesses gave a rare glimpse into life at the aged, often overcrowded jail, where corrections officers fought an ongoing battle against drug use and bizarre smuggling techniques.

Windsor police Const. Darren Smith was one of the investigating officers as a member of the forensic identification unit. When he arrived at the jail that day, staff there already suspected drugs might have caused Blackbird’s death.

While Smith didn’t find any in her cell, he testified a guard told him it was common for inmates to hide drugs in the rail systems of the sliding cell doors.

Smith testified it is “common knowledge” that people would sneak drugs into the jail. People stuff the drugs in condoms and Kinder Eggs, then hide it in body cavities, he said. Some mules hide drugs in their body cavities and get arrested on purpose to smuggle the contraband behind jail walls. Smith added that some intermittent inmates – who serve time on weekends and live in the community during the week – would “most definitely” be drug mules.

Champeau also said it’s well-known that weekenders, as the inmates call them, are often expected to bring in drugs and other contraband.

“If they don’t bring them in they’re going to get slapped around,” she said.

“There are some bullies, you know?”

Blackbird’s fiancé Shawn Meanney said she had asked him before to help her get drugs in jail. She wanted him to pass pills to someone else who would smuggle them in. He said it turned into an argument when he refused.

Meanney testified that on one of his last visits to Blackbird behind bars, she asked him to collect her belongings from the jail and give them to a friend named Christie. In the belongings was a bag of pills she’d been prescribed.

He did what he was asked. About a week later, he received a phone call from Blackbird’s lawyer. She was at the hospital in a coma.

The day before Blackbird died, Champeau was brought to K-Ward in Windsor Jail on a solicitation charge. When she arrived, many of the other women were talking about a weekender arriving the same day. The weekender’s name was Christie.

Blackbird told a corrections officer that she was friends with Christie, who had one leg amputated. She said she could help Christie and asked for them to be placed in the same cell. The officer obliged.

Shortly after Christie arrived, cigarettes started getting handed out from cell to cell. The next morning, Champeau was moved into Christie and Blackbird’s cell. Champeau said she learned the pair had been up all night. Blackbird had been snorting crushed pills smuggled into jail in Kinder Eggs.

“She was really out of it,” Champeau said. “She would nod off and wake up.”

They offered Champeau some but she declined. She preferred cocaine. Blackbird said she had some Wellbutrin and it was kind of like cocaine. Champeau tried snorting some of that but it didn’t have the kick that coke does, so she stopped.

She said Blackbird also continued snorting pills, using playing cards to crush them. Then Blackbird fell asleep around 9 a.m.

Champeau tried to wake her for lunch but she didn’t stir. Blackbird was snoring, so Champeau didn’t think too much of it. A nurse later came by at medication time. Again, Blackbird didn’t wake up. She also didn’t wake up for dinnertime.

Champeau eventually tried to wake Blackbird by lifting her up. The unconscious woman had no pulse. “Pink mucus” spilled out of her mouth. Inmates called for help and officers rushed in.

She was pronounced dead at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, after what her fiancé described as a long battle with addiction that caused her to lose her kids to the Children’s Aid Society.

“She had lots of problems with drugs,” said Meanney, himself a recovering drug addict.

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